


After the Timer Sounds

by Amelia Abernathy (authr2b)



Series: Eremin 7 Prompt Challenge [4]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Timers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-05
Updated: 2015-06-05
Packaged: 2018-04-03 01:52:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4082053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/authr2b/pseuds/Amelia%20Abernathy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Armin spent years of his life staring at the timer on his wrist, wondering if his soulmate would be disappointed by how sickly he was. But all the doubt goes away when he finally meets Eren.<br/>(In the same world and time as my fic Time's Up.)</p><p>Part 4/7 of my Eremin prompts</p><p>Read my fic Time's Up (Which can be found in my Seven Day Challenge series) as it explains the middle bit of the fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After the Timer Sounds

**Author's Note:**

> This took forever to write, I got stuck about halfway through, but thanks to Peter Hollen's cover of Into the West which was on repeat and can be found here ~ https://youtu.be/Ojt0eiFX1K4?list=PLUcJ_HmO2bE9ct1GtRlV2486p6PNpRXB2 ~ I was able to spin out the last half of the fic. (I swear I'm not trying to Rick Roll you, it's fucking gorgeous)

Armin stared at the ceiling of his hospital room, wondering if he was going to die. He could hear his parents and grandfather arguing with his doctor in the hall outside his room about his pneumonia. He couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying, but their tones suggested that they were getting frustrated with the nurses and doctors for not having made everything better yet.

He lifted his arm and stared at the numbers on his wrist. According to the timer he had thirteen years and six months before he met his soulmate. He lowered his wrist and sighed, knowing he may never meet his soulmate. 

He rolled over to get comfortable and fell asleep. 

A moment later the fluid in his lungs began to drown him, and the medical professionals rushed in to save him.

At the same time, a boy three years older than Armin in a classroom a thousand miles away dropped his book as his wrist began to sting. He looked at his timer, which had gone red and began to yell and cry. a blond girl slipped a tihck bracelet onto his wrist and gave him a hug before their teacher escorted him out of the room.

 

Armin woke up a week later, much to his grandfather’s relief. After another week in the hospital, he was allowed to go home. The event was bittersweet, however, as his father had died in a car crash during the week he was out. 

 

A few years later his grandfather and mother moved him to a small town in Virginia where the price of living was cheaper. 

He hated it there. Everyone at school thought he was weird and made fun of him because he was so skinny, which stemmed from his remaining health issues. The summers were scorching hot and the mosquitoes were horrendous more often than not. 

He begged his mother to move so that he could get away from the bullies and the P.E. teacher that made fun of him for not being able to do a pull up. But she said that they couldn’t afford to move, but she withdrew him from school and let his grandfather homeschool him. 

After that he refused to leave the house more than was necessary to avoid the jabs of the teenagers in town. 

Upon finishing high-school he was offered dozens of scholarships and was accepted into most of the major universities on the east coast. he ended up going to one in Maryland for his bachelor's where he met a couple of kids, Marco and Jean, who he ended up rooming with. 

His life actually got better, he still had weight and health problems, but he finally had friends. 

 

One day, when he had a year left on his timer, he and Jean received a call from a hospital in Manhattan saying Marco had gotten into a bad wreck. They drove up as quickly as they could, and rushed to find his room. 

When they arrived, a pretty Asian woman was adjusting an IV hanging near his bed. she looked up and walked over to them. She held her hand out to Armin as she began explaining Marco’s situation. He shook her hand, and noticed that her Timer was just about down to zero, and smiled as she moved to shake Jean’s hand. 

After a moment of her talking and Armin attempting to hide a smile, she left, and Jean turned to him.

“Dude, the fuck is up with you?” he asked. Armin chuckled. 

“Her timer turned to zero about thirty seconds ago.” Jean’s mouth fell open. 

“Dude, was she your soulmate?” he asked. Armin showed him his timer, which showed he had just over a year left. Jean then looked down to see his own timer which was all zeros. He looked inbetween the door and Marco, conflicted about what he should do. 

“I’ve got Marco.” Armin said with a grin. Jean flew out of the door, smashed into the opposite wall, then dashed off after the pretty nurse. 

 

Marco passed away in the night, with twenty-two hours left on his timer.

 

For the remainder of the semester, Jean drove to Manhattan every weekend, typically leaving thursday afternoon, and not returning until sunday evening, spending time with his new girlfriend. 

One weekend, she actually came back with Jean, to meet Jean’s parents, who lived in a community nearby, and Armin. 

Jean’s parents knew about her, while Armin did not, so she walked in on him saturday morning while he was wearing old ratty boxers and an oversized tee-shirt. She made Jean apologize profusely for not letting his roommate know she was coming after Armin ran into his room and changed into something a bit less embarrassing. 

 

Jean and Armin finally made the move to Manhattan a month later to attend graduate programs at the colleges there. 

Armin had expected to see less of his friend, however he actually saw more of him and of his soulmate Mikasa. Apparently their apartment was closer to her hospital than the one that she legally rented, so the two would come home at least twice during the week to find her sprawled out across the couch, still wearing her scrubs. And for that same reason they only stayed at her apartment on friday and saturday nights, which was when she had scheduled time off. 

 

One sunday Armin was jolted awake by Jean slamming the door open. He rushed out of his room to find Jean muttering angrily to himself about something.

“Dude, what happened?” he asked. Jean gave an angry snarl and made a motion to suggest smashing something with his hands. 

“Her fucking friend!” he finally managed. “He’s the biggest fucking dick I’ve ever met!” Jean snarled. “My god, everytime she’s not looking he makes horse jokes and makes fun of me cause he thinks I’m sheltered because I was rich growing up-”

“Cause you were.” Armin pointed out. 

“Yeah but not as sheltered as he acts. And I can’t do anything cause he times it just right and she pops up before I can do anything about it!”

“Why’s the friend over there?” He asked. 

“Cause he hangs out with the girl that Mikasa rents the apartment with.”

“Then why don’t you ask Mikasa if she wants to move in with us? I mean, that way you won’t have to worry about her friend and she won’t have as far to travel every day.” Jean thought it over and agreed. 

Mikasa was completely moved in by the following Tuesday. It wasn’t a huge effort since most of her possessions had made their way to their apartment in the previous four months. 

 

Two months later, they found out Mikasa was pregnant. After she left for work, Armin and Jean discussed how everything was going to work, since the only other room currently housed Jean and Mikasa’s exercise equipment. 

Armin agreed to look for a new place to live, and began looking through local and school ads to find someone.

After a little while his mother came up to visit him and some other relatives. Her second day in Manhattan she helped him get the rest of his things packed, and not two minutes later he received an e-mail back from a student who was also majoring in Literature named Eren, asking him to meet them the following afternoon at two so that they could talk about the possibility of rooming. 

It wasn’t until later that night that he checked his watch and saw that the timer had ticked down to fourteen hours, and that it hitting zero would coincide with his meeting with Eren.

 

He looked at himself in the mirror before he left, and heaved a sigh. He was paler than he’d been in a while, which made the bags and shadows under his eyes even more noticeable. 

He waved goodbye to Jean, who was catching up on classwork he’d missed the day before after going with Mikasa to see the first ultrasound. 

He thought that the walk to the apartment would calm his nerves, but it didn’t. If anything it made him more nervous. He ran into the landlord on the way up, and introduced himself, explaining why he was there. The landlord nodded and told him that he’d send Eren up the moment he arrived. 

This confused Armin a bit, since he’d thought that Eren might have been a woman, not that it mattered. 

He pulled out Pride and Prejudice once he reached the door and leaned against the door as he continued reading about the Netherfield ball. 

He lost himself in the book, and didn’t realize he’d been standing there for an hour until a man called out “Hi!” making Armin look up from his book with a small jump to see a man with unruly brown hair “I’m sorry to keep you waiting.” He held his hand out and the Armin took it.

“Armin Arlert.” he replied, they both froze when they realized both of their timers had ticked down to all zeros.

“Well I’ll be damned.” Eren whispered.

 

Two hours later Armin stood outside the apartment building, his mind reeling as he waited for his mother as he thought about how Eren could have dealt with the pain of believing his soulmate had died. Not that Armin personally thought he was that important, but he knew that if he had thought he’d lost his soulmate, he would have lost his mind. 

His mother finally pulled up front with the trailer containing his belongings, and wearing an eager smile. 

“So, his name’s Eren Yeager? Is he cute?” she asked, taking his hand and giving it a squeeze. 

“Mom, not now.” Armin muttered, blushing furiously. 

“Oooooh, so he’s a bit more than cute, huh?” 

“Mom, can this wait until I’m moved in and can properly introduce you?”

“So is he tall? Does he have muscles? Does he have a nice butt?” 

“Mom, please stop.” Armin begged, as he unhitched the trailer from her car. 

“I will if you promise I’ll get to meet him while we’re here.” 

“Yes! I promise! Now go! I have to move in!” his mother chuckled and gave him a kiss on the cheek before getting back in her car and driving off. He opened the back for a moment to grab the box with his assignments in it before locking the trailer and making his way back to the apartment he’d be sharing with his soulmate.

When he walked in Eren was on the phone and giving exasperated sighs of “yes” and ‘“yeah” and “no” as a woman on the other end of the phone chattered away. He looke dup when the door closed and smiled brightly at Armin, whose heart gave a little flip. 

“Listen, I’ve gotta go, he’s come back up- Mom I got- Mom- Mom!- Mom- MOM! I GOTTA GO!” He gave an exasperated sigh as the woman on the other end said something cheerfully. “Fine, but I gotta go!” the said goodbye and he hung up, giving Armin an apologetic smile. 

“My mom’s excited that you’re still alive,” he explained. Armin looked down at his hands. 

“I don’t know why. I’m not that special.” Eren gave him a questioning look. 

“C’mon. We thought you were dead! That makes you pretty special.” Armin shook his head, and looked around. 

“Where do you want me to put this?” Eren smiled gently and showed him to a room in a back hallway, before going downstairs with him to retrieve everything else. 

While they moved his boxes up, he mentioned his mother wanting to meet him before she left town in two days, which elicited a laugh from Eren. 

“Dude, my mom would be here in the morning if she weren’t in California with my dad, so don’t worry about your mom.” Armin nodded and headed back down the stairs after Eren said he could meet her the next day.

 

A couple weeks passed before Carla was able to come and meet Armin, however. 

Armin spent the entire morning of her visit cleaning up after Eren, who tended to leave his books and notes all over the place, and also had a bad habit of tracking in sand and mud. 

He slumped onto the couch next to Eren, who gave him a slightly amused look over his copy of The Iliad. 

“You know, she’s seen it worse.” he chided. 

“Yeah, well, I want to make a decent first impression.” Armin replied, leaning against Eren’s shoulder. “I didn’t want her to think I’m as sloppy as her son.” Eren rolled his eyes. 

“I’m not sloppy.” 

“You are very sloppy.” Armin said, following the sentence with a yawn. Eren cocked an eyebrow as the blond nuzzled into his arm. 

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” he asked. 

“Dunno, I’ll tell you in a few weeks.” Armin replied. After a few minutes of silence Eren heard Armin’s breathing even out and carefully pulled him into an embrace. 

Carla arrived an hour later to find them fast asleep, with their arms wrapped around each other. 

 

It wasn’t long afterwards that they began sleeping in the same bed. 

Eren began coming up behind Armin in the morning and wrapping his arms around Armin’s waist and burying his face into his soulmate’s neck, which always made Armin’s heart do a little jump. 

Armin smiled one morning when he woke up to Eren holding him close with his fingers weaved into Armin’s thin hair. He realized that it hadn’t taken long for them to actually fall in love with each other. 

 

They went for a walk later that day through the park. Eren had his arm wrapped around ‘s shoulders as they talked about holiday plans to go to Virginia so that Eren could meet Armin’s grandfather. 

Eren slowed to a stop as they neared the fountain where he spotted a young man sprawled out on a nearby bench, and grinned. 

“HEY HORSEFACE!” he called, the figure tensed as Armin poked Eren in the stomach and scolded him for teasing. Armin saw the figure look to each side before turning and bellowing “GO FUCK YOURSELF YEAGER!” with a familiar voice. 

“Jean?” Armin called. Jean immediately jumped to his face and marched over to them. 

“You know him?” Eren asked. 

“Fuck me in the ass with a porcupine, please don’t tell me that this assface is your soulmate!” Jean demanded, pointing at Eren, who replied by sticking his tongue out at Jean. 

“He’s not an assface.” Armin said dryly as Eren pulled him even closer. Jean glared at Eren.

“So it’s not enough that you’re trying to pit Mikasa against me, you’ve kidnapped my best friend?” 

“Well, he came willingly enough.” Eren said with a slight eyebrow waggle. 

Armin groaned as Jean turned a dangerous shade of red and began yelling at Eren. 

 

It took a while, but Armin was finally able to stop the two from fighting and move Eren away from Jean. 

“Can you not do that while I’m around? He’s going to try and use me as a witness when he talks to Mikasa and I don’t want to get dragged into this.” Armin mumbled. Eren chuckled. 

 

A couple months later Armin woke up, still exhausted from spending most of the night in the hospital with Mikasa and Jean and their new baby, and noted that Eren had pulled him close, and he looked up to see Eren smiling fondly down at him. 

He smiled back and stretched so that he could kiss his soulmate.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this fic then please leave a Kudo and a comment and maybe visit me at my tumblr which is authr2b.tumblr.com and maybe even talk to me about my characterizations.


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